Today is my birthday.

I’ve not been a huge fan of my birthday for a long time and I’m not sure it’s an age thing. (I won’t tell you how old I am but through a few Google searches I am sure you can figure it out if you must.) I just don’t like how fast time is flying and my birthday is always a harsh reminder of that.

A few years ago I had a free day before my birthday — no work, no business to run, just me with lots of time to walk around, drink overpriced lattes, and hang out in Barnes and Noble — and I decided to create a list of all the things I’d learned/done/figured out during the past year. I like lists, as you may have noticed, and I really liked doing this. As I was about to do it this year again, I came across this post over at one of the blogs I read frequently. Apparently smart career coaches think that doing an end-of-year review is a good idea, so I am in great company.

I’m going to share some of my list with you here, with no other purpose but to encourage you to do this for yourself. We spend a lot of time making plans and goals, but sometimes we need to take a time-out and think about all the things we have accomplished/learned/done. So here are some of mine for this past year of my life:

• I started a company. It’s not the first company I started, but it’s the first time I am doing it as my full-time gig. Definitely the SCARIEST career move so far in my life.

• I learned how to blog. I’m still a novice, but I understand more about blogging and online communities than I ever had.

• I’ve met some amazing, smart, successful, gutsy, warm women and for the first time, I am enjoying working with women. This might sound nutty, but I’ve always worked in male-dominated fields and never had great mentors or colleagues who were women.

• I’ve begun to eat healthier — more fiber, a greater variety of veggies, more water. This was a goal for this year and I’m psyched that I seem to be on my way.

• I moved with my family to a new city and have managed to (mostly) keep it together. (OK, husband, I did say mostly!)

• I’ve learned about web design, web development, and digital media — and realized that I love it all. No, I couldn’t write a string of code, but I love creating something from scratch that is appealing, useful, and welcoming. (Now is not a good time to tell me about some bug you found on Workitmom.com. OK, joking, please tell me.)

• I’ve realized that as much as I love to write, I also love to talk and meeting people and talking to people has to be an integral part of any career or any job I ever have. This seemed obvious to people who knew me, but now I’ve really understood it as well.

I won’t bore you with a longer list but I hope this can inspire you to do your own end-of-year-review, either on your birthday or as we get closer to the new year. My bet is that as a busy working mom you rarely stop to give yourself any kind of credit for all the awesome things you do — I’m as guilty of this as anyone and it feels good to pat myself on the back:)

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